


The Thread that Leads Me to You

by orphan_account



Series: HideKaneWeek2019 [1]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Blood, Day 1, Fluff, HideKaneWeek2019, M/M, Red thread
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21737698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Hide and Kaneki were soulmates, even if Hide was the only one who knew it. He would be anything Kaneki needed him to be.When he woke up after that night in the sewer, he was so painfully alive. Kaneki was missing, but Hide never stopped searching.
Relationships: Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise/Nagachika Hideyoshi
Series: HideKaneWeek2019 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566736
Comments: 7
Kudos: 81





	The Thread that Leads Me to You

The first time Hide saw Kaneki, it was in a dream.

Hide didn’t often remember his dreams, only snippets and flashes that made no sense. There was the only one he ever remembered, clear as day even years after having it. He was sitting in a spring meadow, surrounded by blooming flowers. A beautiful woman was at his side, smiling. She kept glancing in the direction of the nearby woods. Its thick canopy darkened the forest underneath. Hide swore he saw something moving in the dark, flashes of red that looked like eyes watching him. He didn’t like the forest, and he much preferred his sunny meadow, but…

“Will you find your soulmate? Will you go to him?” The woman asked, her voice like silk.

There was a red thread tied around Hide’s pinky, leading into the darkness of the forest. Hide was scared… but if his soulmate was in the forest… Hide couldn’t just leave him there. He would pull him from the darkness.

Hide followed the thread in the darkness, heart pounding. Hide found a boy his age crouched in the hollow of a tree, reading. He didn’t look up as Hide approached, too absorbed in his book. Hide reached for his hand, the one that shared the same red thread on the pinky. The boy glanced up, eyes wide.

The dream faded into nothing, Hide reaching into the empty space above his bed. He no longer saw the thread around his pinky, but he swore he could still feel it.

It was Hide’s first day at his new school. When he walked into his homeroom, he saw him. He was hunched over reading, much like he had been in Hide’s dream. Hide was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Hide was still young and foolish, but he knew the boy was unequivocally significant for him. Everything Kaneki said and did spoke to something deep inside him, with an intensity that he didn’t understand. It didn’t fade with time. If anything, his feelings grew stronger.

A couple years later, Hide learned the story of the red thread of fate. It was taught it like it was a myth, but Hide knew it was real. For him, at least. He knew him and Kaneki would be together for the rest of their lives. Hide never doubted that from the moment they met.

As they got older and Hide’s feelings matured, he wondered if Kaneki felt the same towards him. It was supposedly normal for boys their age to like girls, so Hide played along. He teased Kaneki about the girls he knew he liked, even if underneath it, he was a little bitter. He wanted to be the one flirting with Kaneki and making his cheeks flush.

Yet, even if they were destined to be together, Hide was content to wait and be there for Kaneki in whatever way he needed him. It Kaneki needed a best friend, that’s what Hide would be.

Kaneki was eighteen when he became a ghoul, and it was almost his nineteenth birthday when he disappeared. For the first couple days, Hide wandered, hoping desperately for the red thread on his finger to lead him to him. When he finally, fitfully, went to sleep, he could only hope to dream of something useful.

On the fifth day, Hide dreamed. There was the same smiling woman, but everything was twisted and wrong. Kaneki’s screams echoed through the forest and a broad-shouldered man wearing a hockey mask stood on the edge, laughing. Hide awoke crying, and more desperate than ever before.

Hide was out searching the next day when he spotted the man. Hide dropped a tracker on the ground, which stuck to the ghoul’s shoe. It took another week for the CCG to mobilize when Hide anonymously spilled them the information.

Hide didn’t see Kaneki, but he knew he was safe. He felt it in his heart. Still, he never stopped looking. It took a long time searching, but eventually, down in those sewers, he found him. Blood ran down his face as he kissed him. The pain was unbearable, but Hide managed to twine their fingers together. Kaneki’s teeth tore into his shoulder. Over and over again. Blood trailed down Hide’s arm and over their hands. Over their pinkies. Hide held on tightly, even as he cried.

He would be whatever Kaneki needed him to be. No matter what. No matter the cost.

Hide thought he was dead. He was presumed to be by everyone else too. But he woke up in the hospital, and was _painfully_ alive. He dreamed often there, and was sometimes unable to tell what was real and what wasn’t. The pain and the medication made his brain foggy, but more than once, he ended up in his sunny meadow.

He knew for sure those were dreams – because he wasn’t in pain – even though he still wasn’t whole. His shoulder and face were heavily scarred, even though he already had multiple surgeries. He reached up and touched his skin – or the lack thereof.

The red thread was still tied to his pinkie. Hide tried to follow it, but always woke up before he could find Kaneki. But he knew he was out there. And Hide wouldn’t stop searching until he found him.

Years and years later, they met again. Kaneki looked like an entirely different person, but he was still Kaneki. When he asked to see what he did to Hide, he almost cried. Hide sat on the roof, and hesitantly, Kaneki sat beside him. It reminded Hide of how they used to sit at the playground as children. He looked up at the stars, reaching out with his pinkie to hook it around Kaneki’s.

“I love you,” Hide told him. “I have for a long time.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaneki sobbed.

Hide reached out with his other hand, not willing to untwine their fingers. He cupped Kaneki’s cheek, wiping the tears away. “I made my choice. I would do it again.”

“I _never_ want you to make a choice like that again.”

“I know,” Hide whispered. But that wouldn’t make his words less true. Hide would give his life to save Kaneki’s.

Kaneki reached out hesitantly towards him and Hide fought the urge to flinch back as Kaneki’s fingers brushed his cheek just above his scars. “Do they hurt?”

_Just a bit._ “No,” Hide said softly. He leaned his face into Kaneki’s hand, relishing the warmth, even though the pressure pulled at the scar tissue. Hide stared at him longingly. How long had he hoped Kaneki would touch him like that?

Kaneki pressed his lips to Hide’s temple, pulling back just enough to gauge his reaction. When Hide curled his fingers in Kaneki’s hair, he pressed kisses over Hide’s eyelids and cheekbones. A sob rose in Hide’s throat, but he swallowed it back, tears beading in the corners of his eyes.

Kaneki was crying again too, tears running down his cheeks freely. He pressed his face against Hide’s shoulder, his breath shuddering. He released Hide’s hand to wrap his arms around him tightly. Hide wanted to be held in his embrace forever. If Kaneki never let go, it would be too soon.


End file.
